I have discussed visa strategies with Owen Buckland at great length.

He explained his strategy for work visas, cultural exchange visas, and NGO visas. He also showed me the various foreign expert certificates for people with 4 year college degrees, 2 year college degrees, and high school diplomas; for students serving internships, for people teaching one semester; for people who arrive on a tourist visa, for people already in China on various visas. I interviewed dozens of Buckland teachers, veterans and new arrivals, as they passed through headquarters in Yangshuo. I attended the orientation, training, teaching practice, and graduation dinner with 30 teachers and had many discussions with them about visas. I sat in on an interview as he answered visa questions from 3 candidates. I have talked to only one person who had major visa complications that he couldn’t solve easily. Put simply, he has a visa strategy for almost every situation.

A note about F visas. Because a misconception about Buckland F visas has been circulating on the message boards for years. An F visa is commonly referred to as a business visa. But F visas apply to a variety of situations, including cultural exchange. The crucial distinction is the invitation letter. For a business visa, the invitation letter is issued by a commercial company. For a cultural exchange visa, the invitation letter is issued by a government agency. There are a lot of visa agents in Hong Kong and a few major cities on the mainland. These visa agents arrange F visas for a fee. A few foreigners teaching part time at the local Buckland language academy located in the basement of the headquarters building and getting paid by the hour get this type of visa before they arrive in Yangshuo. (The one exception mentioned above is one of these teachers.) Frequently these people are tourist, backpackers, rock climbers, and cave explorers who are in Yangshuo for only a few months, or retirees who hang in Yanghou because of the large population of foreigners and the large number of western restaurants. But this is not the type of arrangement Buckland uses for salaried employees with contract positions teaching in his 70 client schools scattered around southern China.

I’m not familiar with the circumstances of the original poster. But based on my extensive investigation, I’d say the Buckland option is a safe option for 99% of candidates.